Reminder: Call for papers: Inclusive education and upbringing

2021-03-03

Call for papers

Special issue: Inclusive education and upbringing

What does it mean to create an inclusive learning space for all children and youth in an inclusive education and upbringing? What dilemmas and challenges arise in the tension between inclusion as a principle and practice of educational institutions and other arenas?

The Salamanca Declaration of 1994 points out that an inclusive education means that all children should learn together, regardless of individual circumstances or differences (UNESCO). In several countries, the principle of inclusive education is stated in policy documents in a way that should allow for diversity, ensuring that all children and youth should receive and meet equal educational opportunities. Thus, education and training must be available to all, it must be inclusive, and everyone must have good opportunities for learning, mastery and development.

International research literature, however, has a strong emphasis on global, neoliberal education policy. When education policy and political reforms (especially in the school field) focus on the benefits of education, mainly through assignments that promote quantitative measurement results (such as learning outcomes, testing, evaluation and competition between schools), it is discussed whether the inclusion agenda itself is threatened. In light of this, Roger Slee (2018)[1] emphasizes that inclusion is a political project. Thus, research on inclusion manifests itself in societal and structural/cultural inequality and sees school as part of the reproduction of this inequality or as an institutional context, where it is possible to break down inequality – and create a society, where equity and social justice can be found. The criticism associated with the neoliberal values ​​also challenges ways of thinking about pedagogy and can provide a limited understanding of what is important for children and youth’s upbringing, and where children's well-being and play are underestimated.

Twenty years after the Salamanca Declaration, Kiuppis and Hausstätter (2014)[2] identified three different agendas in the research literature in the field. Either inclusion is discussed

1) as a way to integrate people with "disabilities" in ordinary education, or

2) in connection with marginalized groups, or

3) based on an understanding that the heterogeneous group of students is diverse and that education must meet this diversity.

Inclusion is thus not necessarily that one has a requirement to incorporate or be incorporated into an already existing community, but one can understand inclusion in a broader perspective. At the same time, there are several (e.g. Mitchell & Norwich)[3],[4]  who are concerned with differences in children's needs, which requires a closer look at the relationship between needs and education at all levels in the institutions.

Despite the ratification of the Salamanca Declaration and the political will to provide inclusive education, there is room for interpretation of the principle of inclusion. This applies to the kindergarten field, in the school and other arenas of upbringing.

We invite researchers to problematize and discuss this topic in a special issue. We want to gather research-based contributions that shed new light on the intention and practical implementation of an inclusive education. The points below should not be understood as thematically binding, but the following perspectives are of interest:

  • Dilemmas and challenges related to implementation
  • Tensions and dilemmas in educational policy guidelines
  • The principle of inclusion in the light of concepts such as life skills, democracy and citizenship
  • Children and youth with special needs
  • Multicultural perspectives
  • Indigenous perspectives and national minorities
  • The roots and development of the concept of inclusion
  • Inclusive training in an international perspective
  • Normality and deviations
  • Values ​​and views on humanity
  • Inclusive training from a systematic perspective
  • Equity and social justice in the context of inclusive education

We especially ask for contributions discussing various challenges, dilemmas or paradoxes related to inclusive education and upbringing. We want to present innovative articles in this issue – empirical, theoretical, historical, comparative and philosophical.

We are interested in international contributions from other countries. The aforementioned societal challenges apply to education systems across national borders.

Entries can be submitted in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and English.

For more information and submission of manuscripts, see pedagogikkogkritikk.no

All articles undergo double-blind peer review.

Write "Inclusive education and upbringing environment" in the title or send a message to the magazine editor that the article is intended for the special issue.

Articles should not exceed 6000 words. You will find detailed author guidelines here.

Deadline for uploading submissions: 20.08.2021.

 

[1] Slee, R. (2018). Inclusive education isn't dead, it just smells funny. Routledge.

[2] Kiuppis, F., & Hausstätter, R. (2014). Inclusive education for all, and especially for some? In F. Kiuppis & R. S. Hausstätter (Ed.), Inclusive education twenty years after Salamanca (pp. 1–5). Peter Lang.

[3] Norwich, B. (2013). Addressing Tensions and Dilemmas in Inclusive Education. Living with Uncertainty. Routledge.

[4] Mitchell, D. (2014). What Really Works in Special and Inclusive Education: Using Evidence-based Teaching Strategies. Routledge.